The punishment budget

Kevin Falcon is pissed. So is Christy Clark.

What has them pissed? Somebody whizzed all over their parade. That's what.

In the hours since the delivering of the BC provincial budget I have tried to rationally analyze what part of the Falcon budget makes sense. I have even taken the dive into fiscal prudence and still, there is no answer which can reconcile the fact that Falcon's budget penalizes British Columbians for their simple existence.

It's all about the Harmonized Sales Tax.

Falcon is a Campbellite. The HST, introduced to the citizens of BC from the blind side, was supposed to be a given. With an unworkable recall legislation, (the only one in the country), the Campbellites were confident that they could dump a change in the provincial tax system on the people of BC without a problem and with enough time until the next election to have it pushed back in the memories of the electorate.

The backlash was swift, ugly and huge.

I don't know many people who would come to the call of  Bill Vanderzalm, but the HST issue got a once reviled provincial premier an unbelievable amount of popular support in the fight to get rid of it. It wasn't so much the tax itself that energized a movement. It was the underhanded methods used to implement it. There are few who could be made to believe that then-premier Gordon Campbell did not lie to the voters when he told reporters that HST was not on the radar just a few months before introducing it.

The forcing of a referendum on the HST cost Campbell his job. Unfortunately what emerged as a premier and ministry turned out to be nothing but the same Campbell water-carriers heaped with the baggage of a corruption investigation tied to another Campbell lie - the sale of BC Rail.

Then there was the attempt to cloud the HST referendum question. Instead of learning from their past dishonesty, the question put to the electorate on the HST was twisted into the negative. Again, people were angry, not so much about the tax, but because the political power elite presumed that voters were stupid enough to fall for a cheap trick.

The political power elite got handed their asses.

The afterglow of the Vancouver Olympics, for the few who actually believed there was one, lasted for all of two minutes. The rejection of the HST and a demand to return to the previous two tax regime had almost nothing to do with the tax itself; it was a response to the behaviour of current provincial government. The lying, the arrogance, the corruption and the gimmicks were put to a direct test. The right-wingers were given a beating their egos still cannot handle.

And that is what the Clark/Falcon budget is all about. It is punishment being meted out to the voters for getting inside the Campbellites private game.

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For what it's worth, Falcon's budget, peppered with Thatcherist moves, has raised another issue. These people are still trying to run a private game.

Who the hell does Gordon Campbell think he is?

It would be nice if we could call Gordon Campbell the former premier of BC. Except that's not what he is. The sonofabitch gets out in front of the media last week, after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a failed pitch to regain some popularity, announces that it's time for a new leader, calls for a leadership convention and then appoints himself the interim leader until a convention produces a new face.

Listening to all the fawning and goo-gooing last week from any high placed individual who could find a microphone, one would think Gordon Campbell was one of the most popular people in BC. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Most people, for most of Campbell's time in office, despised the man. He is arrogant, self-absorbed and unbelievably condescending. All of that on top of the fact that he's outwardly two-faced. And most people didn't vote for the BC Liberals because of him; they did so despite him.

Some wiener had the temerity to suggest that Gordon Campbell was a great man having brought the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver. No mention of the unbelievable wreckage he leaves in his wake, the torn up labour agreements, the secret deals with his big business buddies, soaring ferry fares, increased child poverty, ad nauseum.

And I still contend that BC Rail was sold in an effort to generate quick cash to buy his way out of the one problem the International Olympic Committee saw as an impediment to Vancouver winning the Olympic bid - the Sea to Sky highway. Further, because it all had to happen quickly, many bidders claim the sale was rigged to favour CN.

The problem now is, he's still there. He still rules over his Vancouver centric cabinet... after having effectively resigned.

Of course, since he's still there perhaps he can start answering questions surrounding the Sea to Sky highway. Or maybe get the minister responsible to start talking. Because it appears we're still being lied to by the Campbell crowd and some people are coming closer and closer to exposing a dirty secret Campbell and his capos don't want you to get to close to. 

BC Liberals (who are actually not liberal at all) need to remind themselves that Campbell is poison and the longer they let him occupy an office at 501 Belleville Street the more difficult it will be to rid themselves of the toxins.

Get rid of him. Now.

Give us someone like Kevin Falcon in the interim. We still have a few questions to ask him too.

Lies, Damn Lies and BC's Campbell government

This is a nice shiny 16 page report telling you, dear taxpayer, what a good deal Gordon Campbell's Olympic orgy turned out to be. It's also an attempt to blow sunshine up your ass, being so far from an accurate accounting of the cost of the 2010 Olympic Games as to constitute a joke.

As far as the truth-challenged crowd on Victoria's, Belleville Street are concerned, the BC Government contributed a total of $925 million to hold the Olympic Games. What they conveniently omit from any public statements is that Campbell promised that the Olympic Games would never exceed a cost of $600 million. (Not that anybody believed him then either.) In any case, using just those figures, Campbell's ego party is now at a $325 million over run.

What the report touches on but does not include in the final figures is the federal costs associated with games security. Despite various reports suggesting that the final bill came in at just under $1 billion, there has been no comprehensive final accounting. In fact, you can expect the final figure for that operation to come in at well over $1 billion. (The original estimate handed to the public was $175 million.)

And then there are all those "off book" expenses which the report mentions but neatly ignores on the financial statement.

Sea to Sky highway rebuild - Estimated at $600 million, the Campbell government has never released the actual figures. There are plenty of sources who put the construction cost alone at over $1 billion. Add in 25 years of maintenance (it is a P3 project) and the cost jumps to $3.5 billion. Given the state of the S2S highway before the Olympics there is a good chance it would have had to be reconstructed anyway, but the Olympics turned it into a "hurry up" deal which added to the price. Oh yeah... no tolls. No explanation. For anyone in BC who lived on the wrong side of the Coquihalla highway, in the Fraser Valley beyond a bridge or, heaven forbid, in the provincial capital of Victoria, tolls, tariffs and exorbitant ferry fares are a continuing source of anger. Why does the hedonistic Whistler crowd get a free ride?

Canada Line rapid transit - Estimated at just under $2 billion. Would they have built it if it weren't for the Olympics? Maybe, but Campbell has been trying to download this type of thing onto local levels of government. Even if it had been built, it wouldn't have included an LRT station at the Olympic Athletes' Village. None of the cost of this system was included in the final Olympic money tally.

Then, we have some other stuff. BC Hydro said they contributed $15 million in goods and services plus $1.8 million in "customer appreciation" promotions. They also introduced a two-tier billing system which has caused most hydro bills to increase significantly.

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia insured all VANOC vehicles and drivers at no charge to VANOC. Cost of giving away insurance? $6.2 million. The stunning part of this is that ICBC paid out claims of $2.8 million and then declared that they had made a "profit" of $3.4 million. Thanks for that. I expect to see my premiums go down. No?

BC Lottery Corporation spent $15 million. They say that it had no effect on taxpayers since they recovered all money in gaming sales. Wrong! BCLC would exist as a provincially-owned obscenity if it weren't for the return of profits to the community in the form of gaming grants. Note that the BC government has brutally slashed gaming grants to charities, arts and recreational programs across the board.

Vancouver Convention Centre - $900 million which was rushed to create a world-class media centre.

BC Place Stadium - $19 million rushed in for improvements after VANOC spent $11 million.

Making Cypress Mountain wintry - A steady stream of trucks bringing snow from Manning Park, well over two hours away, to dump on top of bales of hay which had to be imported... well, who knows? Suffice to say that a $7 bale of hay, after being touched by a fleet of helicopters, earth movers and construction crews soared to the $700 each range.

Do the math. Try not to get sick.